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Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

And welcome back from Memorial Day 🇺🇸 weekend. I live in a neighborhood with many retired veterans and the pomp and circumstance was on full display here. I hope you all got your summer kicked off the right way too.

This week’s riff is not on starting up, but on keeping ahead.

Let's get into it.

Gmail users may wish to read online since some parts may be clipped. Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Trolleys and Outhouses

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Nearly half of all US employees work for a small business. And half of those businesses end up failing by their 5th year.

Adaptation might be even more important than getting your business launched.

When I started a web design business I didn’t have a 10 year plan. We sold a client on our service. We did good work. We charged a fair rate. They loved the result. We used that case study to land the next client. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

But it was so easy to hang out a web design shingle in 1995 that we quickly had competition. “Our designers make it prettier” was not a long term winning proposition.

How could we differentiate?

We dug into what really worked online. And added usability insights with actual customers to the design process. We built the first Charlotte usability lab complete with a 1-way mirror and clients could listen as their customers interacted with our interface work. Extraneous pretty stuff was removed – and in its place – ease of use.

Design that could remove customer friction? Reduce costs? Increase sales?Differentiated.

Those case studies became a springboard to application development work. Corporate clients had not done usability work on internal software so we got to move up the food chain to more strategic projects.

That little startup expanded, exposed me to Fortune 500 best-practices, allowed me to extend out into other industries and ultimately led to my next business. The design firm beat the odds (70% of startups don’t make it to 10 years) and lasted for 14 before I closed the doors.

Trolleys and Outhouses

I was in the NC mountains last week and caught up with 2 of my favorite entrepreneurs in an industry I’d never want to be in: restaurants.

Not only are food customers fickle, these 2 are located in tourist areas that can only be described as ‘geographically challenging.’ But they have both found unique ways to adapt their startups into something that generate more business and repeat customers.

Happs Place is located in Glenville, NC. And it’s a blend of 3 different buildings - some originally constructed in 1900, plus computerized wood-fired pizza oven, great outdoor bar, stone fireplace, putting green, music stage and multiple TV’s. GM Derek greets every visitor and seems to have more friendly staff than needed. He’s built a perfect summer outdoor dining venue.

But it’s 6 miles of twisty roads away from the tourists of Cashiers. So Derek dreamed up the idea of having a Trolley go pick up guests and take them home safely. And they have been such a big hit that he extended his brand by renting his Trolleys for weddings and other parties. And now he has transportation logistics issues added to his weekly restaurant management!

Slopeside Tavern is in Sapphire Valley and was formerly a small ski slope snack bar.

Geographically there are more rentals and second homes near this location, but still, you can’t just make money during the 2 months of snow and the 3 month summer tourist season. Nicole, the owner-operator, adapted and grew.

She built a solid year-round menu and weekly specials. They improved the outdoor deck area and hosted live Thursday night music. They became the central location for Sapphire Valley Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day events.

She had some built-in winter business because of the skiing, but has added catering, live music and events. Summer is obviously the busiest, but they welcome leaf watchers in the fall, motorcycle and car club rallys and of course the Great Outhouse Races!

Nicole launched Slopeside during Covid and they’re celebrating their 5th year of success this week!

If you find yourself in the mountains of NC, upstate South Carolina or even north Georgia - both of these entrepreneurs would love to see you.

Their businesses couldn’t survive by just making good food, and yours can’t either. No matter what you’re building you will need to refine and adapt.

You might need to source a trolley or build a winning port-a-john for an Outhouse Race. But your business will be stronger for it.

Sláinte!

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

One of the most innovative AI news stories this week is Microsoft’s Aurora model, which can generate accurate 10-day weather forecasts in under a minute, outperforming traditional models.

Fine-tuned for hurricanes, it delivers 20-25% more accurate track forecasts up to five days ahead, potentially saving lives and resources.

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Old School Wisdom

A newly revised and expanded edition of the revolutionary business classic, Differentiate or Die, Second Edition shows you how to differentiate your products, services, and business in order to dominate the competition.

Veteran marketing guru Jack Trout uses real-world examples and his own unique insight to show you how to bind customers to your products for long-term success and loyalty.

Free Knowledge

Is marketing the problem you’re not good at? Sign up for the Marketing Rebel Report.

Stan Dahl, John Carlton, David Deutsch and their merry band have forgotten more good marketing than you will ever know.

Recommendations

🗃️ Dealroom Business Success Uncovered : Learn directly from billionaire entrepreneurs on how to grow a business. Join a community of 2,000+ innovators.

👋 Huntrs : Join Hanna Larrson and learn how to build your personal brand and audience, monetize your knowledge, build multiple income streams and a lean, profitable online business.

🟢 Scalable : Helping early-stage founders launch products and grow startups, fast.

📕 MGMT Playbook : Practical management insights straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

📰 Newsletter Operator : Learn how to grow and monetize your newsletter. Trusted by 30,000+ media founders, CEOs, creators.

💼 Thriving Freelance - Gigs and Growth : Hundreds of job opportunities sent directly to your inbox each week, plus timely resources to support you as you grow and evolve.

Visual Crapshoot